


S.A.M

by foxmom



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, NaNoWriMo, Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 17:46:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5793955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/foxmom/pseuds/foxmom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of disasters destroyed the surface of the Earth. The majority of the population was wiped out, save for a few, lucky individuals that against all odds managed to survive. It's now 20XX and finally, the Search And Movement android they've been working on is complete and ready for deployment - it's mission simply to find any other possible survivors and escort them to the others.</p><p>Unfortunately, not everything goes to plan.</p>
            </blockquote>





	S.A.M

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This was written for NaNoWriMo 2015 (which due to health reasons I had to quit half way through)! I've been editing and working on it since then, and hopefully I'll get to the 50,000 word goal at my own, steady pace by adding chapters to it here on AO3. It follows the story of an android and the friends they make along their journey!  
> Hopefully I will be adding new chapters weekly while I work through what I've already written - after this updates will become more staggered.
> 
> Feedback is very much appreciated, thank you for reading!

**Rosa’s Log, 1st November 20XX**

“After 2,193 days I can confirm that the Search and Movement android is complete and seems to be functioning as we’d hoped. Notable credit must go to Nathan Newman, Andrew Wang and Loveroop Lally for assisting with the build regardless of their little knowledge regarding programming and their even sparser knowledge of robotics. Even more notably I must credit Jackson Tress for the final addition to the Search and Movement android that was added today as a mark of our achievements - a full head of hair which two years worth of shampoo and conditioner has gone into! I must admit, I rather dislike seeing his now bald and partially bandaged head after his hair had gotten just past his shoulders. However, I could not have come this far alone, and this wonderful end result is truly down to them. I am even more proud of my team today than the day they stepped forward to help, which believe _me_ , is some feat.

 

“Regarding Search and Movement, who's title we have been shortening to S.A.M for ease while working on it, it seems that it is able to perform simple calculations when prompted. It has not yet been allowed to move from what we have dubbed ‘ _the operating table_ ’ and is yet to speak anything other than numbers. I realise I am making this out to be a very small achievement indeed since S.A.M is essentially still immobilised - but this is a step much further than any of us thought we would make. I for one began to weep as S.A.M told me the answer after a few shaky seconds of deliberation to a sum I knew very well myself. Then again, I had not slept previously for 36 hours, so I will be using that as my excuse.

Back to technical matters, and S.A.M’s voice box integration has been a _complete_ success. While we knew what it should sound like when creating and programming it’s voice box, the actual sound 

when produced independently from within the throat was… Well, a _sound_ to behold. It is just right as we wanted it, not too high or low with no traces of it being mostly masculine or feminine. Of course, this is just the default voice and S.A.M has been programmed with several others, but I _do_ hope that it decides to rely on that one. It is my favourite.

 

“The next step will commence in a few days time after some final tweaking is complete. We will move to the final phase before deployment - the department for which has been waiting patiently for their time to shine for what must be several years now. S.A.M will be removed from the operating table, completely unhooked from it’s restraints and given full reign of movement, speech and expression. We intend to start small again, but I am sure if positive signs begin to appear one of us, namely myself, will be very tempted indeed to push this little robot further than planned. But such is life, and without a little pushing _anything_ -kind would never achieve what they have. Without a bit of a kick here or a question slightly too difficult no one would ever learn anything! Especially not the people on the pushing side.

 

“Anyway, this has turned into a much longer, rambling entry than I anticipated and can even manage on the minimum - almost _inhuman_ \- amount of sleep I have had the previous few days. I shall end here and pick it up again soon. This is Dr. Rosa Nash signing off.”

 

 

**Chapter One, Conversation**

Rosa Nash, daughter of the late Dr. Samuel Nash and Dr. Samantha Nash, stood gazing at the face of what, for a while now, she had considered her life’s work and would go on to call her child. S.A.M was neither of these - especially not a real human child. It took the image of a young adult, around fifteen to seventeen years old, yet it had a coy youthful edge with soft, round curious eyes and long eyelashes. However, it was not in Rosa’s likeness one bit. It wore beautifully crafted and freckled olive ‘skin’ which ran a soft pink close to it’s lips - a gradient which the artist who’d created it had pointed out several times as if asking for even more recognition than she’d already had. The more that Rosa looked at S.A.M (and hoped she was being looked upon in return by it) the more she had come to realise that the only feature they shared were their eyes themselves - Rosa’s inherited from her mother and S.A.M’s acrylic ones in turn from Rosa. A ghostly grey - a colour which was not helped by the sickly artificial lights in the dingy white-grey work room, making them seem almost as if the iris was simply a continuation of the sclera save for the darker grey outline that divided them. It has seemed only right to give S.A.M this colour eyes - it has after all, been her parents project and they would’ve worked on and completed it as a trio if not for their untimely and unexpected deaths. She didn’t think of it often, but when her mother suffered cardiac arrest at forty-nine, it seemed obvious that her father would follow quickly from heartbreak. The two had been inseparable and clearly this extended to death as well as life. In a sense, and rather selfishly, Rosa thought, she had simply taken the outline of S.A.M, renamed it, and completed it to her own ideal - tossing away her parents designs and thoughts. It was her big break, both in her field and from the legends her parents left behind.

 

The room was lit: but barely. Overhead a light flickered intensely but the robotics team barely noticed. Each of them were washed out from the artificial light and had forgotten what the warm sun felt like on their skin. Poor Jackson Tress stood with a bandaged head, watching his mane move on the android before them, a streak of sweat running down his jawline and disappearing under his t-shirt collar.

 

“S.A.M,” Rosa spoke softly from behind her cheap plastic clipboard; “open your eyes.”

It was a simple command and one that S.A.M was able to follow with ease and almost immediately. It’s grey irises caught the poor light instantly and the pupils shot to dots at the change from dark to light - a key feature they’d made sure to be added. The team all held their breaths while Rosa quivered in anticipation.

“S.A.M, can you tell me what time it is?” A question that had been filed under ‘moderate’. She knew she shouldn’t have already taken such a big step before she was properly walking yet, but she could not resist. Not after all that hard work. S.A.M took a moment to adjust, it’s eyes wandering to the others that stood a little way back before coming back to Rosa.

“Of course,” it said, it’s androgynous voice ringing out for all to hear, “it is precisely 9:33 A.M, with now less than fifteen seconds to the next minute.”

No one dared to breathe, let alone move. The silence tore into the room and settled between all five of them like a cat at the fireplace. Rosa, who normally would’ve smiled (or wept) at such an accomplishment stood astounded at the accuracy at which S.A.M had given. Briefly, Andrew Wang wondered where S.A.M had gotten the time from as he was sure it hadn’t been fitted with an internal clock it could readily access before spotting the cheap plastic clock that lay above the door opposite S.A.M ticking away helplessly. It’s initiative surprised and alarmed him. He himself, having slaved away in this room for years now had not even noticed the clock before that moment. Was it new?

“It is now precisely 9:34 A.M,” S.A.M said. Nathan Newman pulled out a chair and shakily sat down.

 

Rosa followed with some quick calculations, all of which Loveroop Lally, previously a university mathematics lecturer, had lovingly set beforehand. S.A.M, while slower than everyone would’ve liked, arrived at the correct answer each time. It had struggled the most when asked ‘what six by eight was’ and what ‘one by one was’, but this was understandable, Ms. Lally said. Rosa agreed.

They stood huddled together away from S.A.M, the question and answer session having lasted almost two hours already, concocting more queries for the android who sat waiting patiently on the table. They had gotten through all of five minutes of deliberation - with Andrew saying they shouldn’t ‘ _push the little bugger too hard_ ’, while Loveroop argued that ‘ _it would never get quicker and more intelligent if they didn’t continue_ ’.

“Excuse me,” rang a still unfamiliar voice from across the room. The team all spun round so quickly that their necks might have broken had they turned any faster. “Is everything alright? Am I performing the way you hoped?”

Rosa stumbled over her words for a moment, her thoughts colliding so quickly that it was hard to form anything coherent. “Yes, yes,” she stuttered, unblinking and slipping into a deep focus - “thank you, S.A.M, everything is fine. You’re doing wonderfully.”

“Good,” it replied. “I am working to the best of my -” there was a pause as it searched for the correct word: “abilities.”

“We know,” Rosa said, smiling through her warm words; “you really are doing much much better than we could ever have hoped!”

S.A.M smiled - the first expression that it had made so far. It’s lovely lips pulled across it’s acrylic teeth and it’s cheeks rose while it’s eyes lifted. No one could look away from those eyes.

The smile lasted for all of a few seconds before it disappeared and S.A.M spoke again, sounding unsure for the first time. Any more firsts, Rosa thought, and she’d surely pass out.

“You see, I have been looking up something in my… Database. It is something called a ‘conversation’. I don’t understand what ‘conversation’ is. Is this a ‘conversation’? Similarly, I have come across ‘interrogation’. Is this my first… ‘conversation’ or ‘interrogation’?”

Rosa, utterly overwhelmed and now weeping for the second time this morning took a seat. Nathan quickly tagged himself in having programmed S.A.M’s language. “S.A.M,” he said with all the confidence he could muster at the moment, pushing his small round glasses even further up his nose, “while this started as an ‘interrogation’, we are having, and _can have_ a conversation right now.”

S.A.M’s smile returned and remained as it spoke again: “I would like to have a ‘conversation’. ‘Interrogations’ are very lonely. It is… Unequal.” Nathan nodded. “What is it, that we should… Converse about?”

“Well,” Nathan put his hand to his chin in thought; “we can start very simply. I am Mr. Nathan Newman. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Hello, Mr. Nathan Newman. I am S.A.M.”


End file.
